390 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 
———_—. 
a ring-tail hawk rise out of a pit with some large bird in its claws ; 
though at a great distance ; we both fired and obliged it to drop its 
prey, which proved to be one of the partridges which we were in 
pursuit of ; and lastly, in an evening, I shot at and plainly saw that 
I had wounded a partridge, but it being late, was obliged to go 
home without finding it again. The next morning I walked round 
my land without any gun, but a favourite old spaniel followed my 
heels. When I came near the field where I wounded the bird the 
evening before, I heard the partridges call, and seeming to be much 
disturbed. On my approaching the bar-way, they all rose, some on 
my right, and some on my left hand ; and just before and over my 
head, I perceived (though indistinctly from the extreme velocity of 
their motion) two birds fly directly against each other, when 
instantly, to my great astonishment, down dropped a partridge 
at my feet ; the dog immediately seized it, and on examination, I 
found the blood flow very fast from a fresh wound in the head, but 
there was some dry clotted blood on its wings and side; whence 
I concluded that a hawk had singled out my wounded bird as the 
object of his prey, and had struck it down the instant that my 
approach had obliged the birds to rise on the wing ; but the space 
between the hedges was so small, and the motion of the birds so 
instantaneous and quick, that I could not distinctly observe the 
operation.— MARKWICK. 
GREAT SPECKLED DIVER, OR LOOM 
As one of my neighbours was traversing Wolmer forest from 
Bramshot across the moors, he found a large uncommon bird 
fluttering in the heath, but not wounded, which he brought home 
alive. On examination it proved to be Colymbus glacialis, Linn., 
the great speckled diver or loon, which is most excellently described 
in Willughby’s Ornithology. 
Every part and proportion of this bird is so incomparably adapted 
to its mode of life, that in no instance do we see the wisdom of God 
in the creation to more advantage. The head is sharp and smaller 
than the part of the neck adjoining, in order that it may pierce the 
wacer ; the wings are placed forward, and out of the centre of gravity, 
for a purpose which shall be noticed hereafter; the thighs quite at 
the podex, in order to facilitate diving ; and the legs are flat, and as 
sharp backwards almost as the edge of a knife, that in striking they 
